Improved meat and vegetable-chopper



dinited States aient @titten Letters Patent No. 99,301, dated February 1, 1870.

IMPROVE!) MEAT AND VEG-ETABLE-CHOPPER.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making part of the same.

To all lwhom. it may concern:

Be it known that I, S. F. Ennnsos, of Seville, inv the county of Medina, and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Meat and Vegetable-Choppers; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of my invention, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, and to the letters of reference marked thereon, of4 which drawings- Figure l is a plan of my machine.

Figure 2 is a side view of the same.

Figure 3 is an cnd view of the same.

My invention consists, first, in operating a vertical chopping-knife in a meatchopper, by means ofaslotted knife-beam, having the knife-standard attached at one end, and having its axis of motion in a' pivot at the otherend, and operated by means of an eccentric working in the slotin said beam, whereby I oifset the mechanical disadvantage due to'applying the power between the fulcrum or pivot of the knife-beam, and the 'resistance of the knife in chopping, by the mechanical power duelo the wedge-like action ofthe eccentric in forcing down the knife, thus making the machine easy t-o operate, and very compact in construction.

My invention consists, secondly,' in so constructing and arranging the kuiie-standard for a vertical chopping-knife in a meat-chopper, as that the same shall be held at all times during the movements, at three separate points, triangularly arranged in the plane of the knife-standard, two of said points being ou the pivotuniting the knife-standard with the knife-beam, andthe third point being on a standard secured on the frame outside'of the meat-tub, whereby the knife can be so arranged as to move in nearly a vertical plane, passing through the centre of the meat-tub, and is firmly held from wabbling without cramping or impeding its movements.

My invention consists, thirdly, in the combination of a pivoted guide-1fod with the knife-standard and frame of a vertical-chopping meat-chopper, said rod being arranged parallel to the knife-beam, and having the distance between its pivots equal tothe distance between the pivots of the knife-standard andthe pivot of the knife-beam, whereby the knife is made steady init-s movements, and is caused to'move nearly directly up and down in the meat-tub, thus greatly lessening the liability of throwing the meat out of the tub. i

My invention consists, fourthly, in-providing the knife-beam with a forked arm, to vibrate a pivoted lever on the frame, to thelower end of which is attached a drag-rod, whichengages with a toothed rim on the meat-tub, and imparts a rotary motion to said tub; the peculiar utility of this arrangement consisting in itssimplicity of construction, and its central position in the frame, which protects it from injury, as well as in the facility which it affords for changing the amount of rotary movement in the meat-tub, by simply altering the distance between the drag-rod and axis of'the pivoted lever.

My invention consists, ifthly, in extending the sides of the knifefstandard up above the pivot on the knifebeam, and uniting them by a bar so constructed as to serve both as a brace to the standard and a handle for the same, whereby the knife is made much more convenient to handle, without increasing its weight or cost.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construc- 2,) in the cross-arm Y at the end of the beam M, as

shown in fig. l. v

The slot N, which is made with two of its sides par allel, is formed at or near the centre of the beam M, and in it is placed the eccentric O, which is made of a diameter equal to the distance between the parallel sides of the slot N, and' is secured ou the shaft P, which is arranged in the frame-pieces B B.

The fly-wheel'L is secured on the shaft P, together with the pinion V, which meshes into the wheel S ou the shaft Z, which shaft is arranged in the framepieces B B, andis provided with the crank T, as shown.

The forked arm Q is secured on the beam M, and between its forks is the bent end of the lever R, which is pivoted by a screw, n, to the inner face of the rear frame-piece B, and has the rod Wsecured to it by a screw or bolt passing through the end ofthe rod into one of the holes p in the lever, as shown in g. 2.

The end of the rod W is made with a hook-head,j,

which slides on the arm G, and is pressed up to the ratchet-rim D by the spring It secured on the rod IV,

and pressing against an arm, r, on the arm G.

The knife-standard consists of the two side-pieces J J, which are extended up above the pivot-pin f, and are united by the handle-shaped piece K, as shown in g. 3.

The knife bed-plate a is secured to the lower ends of the side-pieces J J, and has the knife b secured to it by. means of the screws c c, which pass through slotted holes in the knife, and screw into the bedplate a A Bange is formed on the bed-plate a, over the knife b, and the screws d d are passed through this flange and press down on the back of the knife 11, thus serving to adj ust the knife, so as to cause it to cut squarely on the wooden bottom E of the meat-tub The arm I is secured on one side-piece J of the knifestandard, and projects over the side C of the meattub, where it is provided with a flange, t, which-has a hole formed in it for the guide-rod Hwhich is secured in the arm G, as shown in iig. 3.

The broad, iat wings X X are secured on the bedplate a. over the knife b,.and serve to prevent the meat which sticks tothe knife from being thrown over the side C of the meat tub, by the upward movement of the chopping-knife.

The knife-standard is secured to the knife-beam M by means of the pivotpin f, which passes through a side-piece, J, on one side of the beam M, through the arm e at the end of said beam, and through the sidepiece J on the other side of lsaid beam, as shown iu iig. 3.

The pivoted guide-rod U is pivoted at its rear end to an arm,l l, on the frame-piece B, and its front end is made in a straight hook-form, and hooks on to the pin g in the knife-standard J K J, the rod U being so coistructed and arranged as that a line drawn trom the piu g to the pivot-pin in the arm Z shall be equal in length and parallel to a line drawn through the beam M, from the centre of the arm e to the centre of the arm Y, (the axis of said arms being supposed to be the axis of motion ofthe knife-standard on the l knife-beam, and of the knife-beam in the frame B B.)

From the foregoing description, it is readily seen,

that by turning the crank l a reciprocating motion meat-tub being varied,'to suit different degrees of fine-- ness required in the meat, by changing the bolt or screw which unitesthe rod W to the lever R, from one hole 1) to another, in a manner readily understood. It is also evident that the knife-standard J K J is held, during all its movements, by the two bearings of the pivot-pin j, in the side-pieces J J, and by the bearing4 of the rod H in the end t of the arm I on the knife-standard, these three bearing points being triangularly arranged in the planeof the knife-standard, and hence acting together to prevent any wabbling of the knife.

' The 'pin f can be easily drawn ont, when the knife standards can be readily lifted from the rod H and in combination, that the rod H be curved to conform with the arc described by the pivot-pinf.

Having thus fully described my invention, I do not claim as new the hanging of a chopping-knife stand. ard at the end of aA walking-beam, nor do I claim the use of a knife-standard, except when combined with the mechanism described, or when constructed with the handle-piece, as shown; nor do I claim the intermittent rotation of the meat-hopper, except when pro-l duced by the combination of mechanism shown ,Yv nor do I claim the use of the arm Iand rod H,-.except in combination with the pivot-pin f, and then only 'when the several parts are arranged in the same plane, as shown but v What I do claim herein as new and of my inven# tion, 4and desire to sccur by Letters Patent, is-

l. The combination of the knife-beam M, provided with slot N, and vibrating around suitable journals at one end, knife-standard J J, and they eccentric O, arranged on shaft P, and working in slot'N, the several parts being constructed and arranged to operate as and for the purpose specified.

2. The knifestandard J J, secured on vibratingbeam M by pivot-piu f, and provided with arm I, having a collar, t, to slide on guide-rod H,when said gnidef rod is placed outside of the hopper C E, and the bearings of the pivot-piu f in said standard, and the hole in the collar t, are triangularly arranged in the plane of said standard, as and for the purpose specified.

3. The combination of the knife-beam M, knifestandard J, and pivoted guide-rod U, said guile-rod being arranged parallel to the knife-beam, and having the distance between its pivots equal to lthe distance between the pivot line of the knife-standard, and the axis of vibration of the knife-beam, as is hereinbefore specified.

'4. The combination of the forked armQ, on the knife-beam -M, pivoted lever R, drag-rod W, and hopper C E, with ratchet-rim D, the several parts heilig arranged as is herein specified.

5. llhe knife-standard J K J a, consisting of the bed-plate @side-pieces J J, and handle K,'unitingl 

